CFW’s fall grant cycle focuses on economic security through the Eleanor Network, providing funding for workforce development training, support services and advocacy. This year’s grants advance The 100% Project’s goal to achieve economic stability for all women in the Chicago region by 2030 by empowering women to develop and build wealth through living-wage jobs with benefits, affordable housing, education, entrepreneurship, and addressing systemic causes of generational poverty.

The grants will provide additional resources to organizations providing mentoring, training, and job placement services for low-income women and girls, and advocating for policies that help end the cycle of poverty. Organizations receiving grants from the Eleanor Network at CFW include:

Accion Chicago, which works to revitalize under-served communities through job-creating entrepreneurship, with a focus on supporting minority, women and low-income entrepreneurs.

Chicago Youth Centers, which provide robust STEM education and one-on-one instruction to help close the skills-gap and prepare children for success in school and in the workforce.

Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC)’s Women in Manufacturing Program offers job training for low-income women to prepare them for careers in the metal manufacturing sector, which offers stable jobs that pay a living wage.

The Foundation also awarded nine grants through a matching grant from the Catalyst Fund for Reproductive Justice at Groundswell, which supports reproductive justice advocacy organizations led by women of color. The Catalyst Fund supports organizations that address reproductive justice issues that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color, including: the right to reproductive health care; the right to bear and parent children; the right to access a safe and legal abortion; the right to live free from violence; and the right to live and work in a healthy environment.

New grantees of the Catalyst Fund this year include A Long Walk Home, which empowers young women of color to advocate for themselves to end gender violence, and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, a multi-issue advocacy organization that brings together Asian American and Pacific Islander women to advocate for their reproductive rights, health and justice.

To learn more about the Fall 2016 cycle of grantees, please click here.

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